Winter Weather will transition to Classic Rain

Rain is washing snow away 10:00 am

Starting all the way back on December 4th when I got the first snowflakes of the season with a series of light flurries to this morning where another 3/4 inch of snow and then ice was deposited on my yard, I have accumulated just over 5 inches of winter precipitation and that is well above my 15 year average of 2.7 inches in December.

The first system brought an inch of wet snow that stayed on the ground for the afternoon but was gone my early evening. The second bout of snow brought me 2 inches of fluffy white snow and howling winds that blew the snow all over until it came to rest on the east side of some immovable barrier like a house or fence. That system had entrenched cold air that kept us chilly and left the snow on the ground for 4 days. Then another blast of arctic air mixed with moisture from the south made way north. The southern half of the metro area got upwards of 5 inches where I got about an inch and a half here in the north. The remnants of that snow and the fresh layer from this morning remain on the ground here on day six but it will be gone by the end of the day. I got 34 degrees showing and it is steady snow eating rain that is falling from the sky.

We are expected to see some locally heavy rain later in the week possibly 2-3 inches and snow levels will rise up above pass levels for a bit before returning to a more typical 2000-3000 feet.  But what of Christmas now just six days on the horizon? Right now the NWS in Portland has us forecast for a cool 38 on Christmas Day the low Christmas morning should be just a tad above freezing. This far out, who knows, a little shift in the atmosphere could drop us back into the snow zone. Statistics do not favor this however.

Let's sit back and soak it all up my friends, soak it up. Ho Ho Ho... Merry Christmas be it white or green :)

November Soggy and Mild

2016 is taking it's final lap as the month of November is retired to history. November was pretty warm overall and seasonally soggy. I have never recorded a 70 degree mark in the month of November and that is still the case but we did tease it a bit with a 68.4 reading on the 4th of the month.

Between the record wet October and this seasonally typical November I have recorded nearly a foot and a half of rain in the last 60 days!

On the temperature side of the weather, that 68.4 was the warmest and the coldest mark I had was 34.3 degrees on the 18th and that means I still have NOT recorded a subfreezing temperature. I did briefly accumulate some ice on my car's windshield on that very night so I have recorded a frost. This year will be the latest for the first seasonal sub-freezing temperature in the 16 years I have been recording at this locale. In fairness, we haven't had a continuously clear night in a long while. The warmest overnight low came on the 5th when the mercury bottomed out at a balmy 52.5. The coolest afternoon high was a seasonal cool, 45.3 degrees on the 27th. Overall the average observed temperatures were 44.8 and 55.19 against my 16 year "normal" of 38.42 and 50.98. That was a toasty November!

As for precipitation it was seasonally pretty typical. I measured a satisfying 7.67 inches in the bucket against a normal 7.98 inches. Nary a flake of snow fell but that is really not unusual at all for November as the last 16 Novembers have had 9 without any snow, 2 with just a trace, and the remaining 5 having some legit snow ranging from 1-3 inches. The rainiest day came about on the 24th when a monsoonal 2.24 inches fell which was one of two days exceeding an inch and 7 days over a quarter. 21 days saw .03 or more and just two days could be called sunny. Yeah, it was November ;)

The local prognosticators are calling for a mass of chilly air to drop down out of Canada and the Gulf or Alaska next week and snow is in the forecast. Hard to say, some feel it will be limited to 1000 feet and higher but others think that we may get isolated, localized snow showers all the way down to sea level. We shall see, but one thing is for sure, December on average is the coldest month of the year and the second snowiest month of the year behind January. La Niña is supposedly in place and that does mean cooler ocean temperatures and a little less effective marine influence on local snowfall.

If it is gonna snow, isn't December the better month for it anyhow? Ho, Ho, Ho, let's have some snow!

Get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Soggy October

What a month! We just closed the books on the soggiest month of the year. October 2016 produced a whopping 9.15 inches of rain which is more than DOUBLE the average over my 15 years of reporting here. Is this what La Niña has in store for us this year? I wrote about the upcoming La Niña predictions on my blog, The 'Couv' Life, here.

It is not often that October is a rain leader. Sure the season starts to change in October but God doesn't usually open main line faucet until November.

I had 26 days with rain and only one day I could really call "sunny". All the cloud cover worked to create a month with warmer than average overnight lows and cooler than average daytime highs. There was nary a 70 degree mark in the month of October and in fact the warmest day I recorded at my station was a 66.7 on the 12th.

Temperature wise, October had only one low in the thirties and it was a 37 measured on the morning of the 12th. 19 days this past month saw overnight lows above 50 degrees! The warmest overnight low came on the 8th when the mercury bottomed out at a summer-like 54.7 degrees. The warmest afternoon was the aforementioned 66.7 on the 12th and the coolest afternoon high was a seasonably cool 53.6 degrees yesterday. The observed averages were nearly 3 degrees warmer overnight but nearly two degrees cooler by day. October's observed averages came in at 48.59 low and 59.56 high.

On the water side of the weather, we had a very wet month indeed. I mentioned at the start over 9 inches of precipitation fell all in the form of rain except in the mountains. We had one monster rain storm that came in on the 13th a dumped a monsoonal 2.21 inches on my rain gauge. That is the type of day that can skew the average for the whole month. Let it be known however, that really isn't the case this time. If I remove that day the month would still have nearly 7 inches and would still be close to 50% higher than average rainfall for October. Seriously guys, it rained 26 days last month! I only had two days in which there was zero rain. There were three days with less than .04 which really isn't "rain". There was 11 days with at least a 1/4 inch of rain. This was a cloudy, soggy, and all round rainy October.

Mount Hood Meadows Webcam shot, last week.

Is this a prelude to a monster wet season? Will I get five feet of rain this winter? Could happen? There's already nearly a foot in the bucket this season!

How about the snow and ski season? La Niña tends to favor the snow in the mountains. You can see that snow is accumulating up on Mount Hood already and the start of the winter ski season may come before Thanksgiving if this precipitation trend continues.

We sure could use a big thick snow pack this year. The cooler pacific ocean temperature could bring us a banner water year by packing the mountains with 80 feet of snow! Let's hope so!

Soak it up my friends, soak it up!

So Long September and So Long Summer

Another month is relegated to the archives of weather history. Not much to discuss as it was a pretty typical September albeit substantially cooler than my 15 year average. In fact leading up to the start of the month my 14 year average high for September was 74.7 degrees and this month was nearly 5 degrees cooler than that average. Enough to actually impact the average in a real noticeable way. The new 15 year average stands at 73.8, nearly a full degree cooler. Of course it's all rather anecdotal it is still interesting just how cool last month was.

I believe the cool average was due largely in part to the complete lack of any heat wave at all. The warmest day of September came on the 26th with a fairly warm 84.9 degrees. That was one of 7 days in which the 80 degree mark was reached. The warmest overnight low came on the 7th at 57.6 degrees and led to a sub 70 afternoon high. We had several systems move through during the month and that kept many days cooler than average including one day that failed to reach 60 degrees; that was the 23rd when the merc couldn't push past 57.7.

The air of Autumn is noticeable as our evenings are cooling off quicker and there is that crispness in the morning. No freezing temps yet, in fact we didn't even take a single jaunt into the 30s. The closest was a chilly but still seasonable 41.4 yesterday morning (30th).

Rain was fairly average with most of the moisture falling on two days, the wettest of those 1.02 inches on the 17th and there was 0.62 on the second. The rest of the rainfall was spread out over an additional 3 days. The total for the month was 2.11 inches; a little shy of my average mark around 2.47 inches.

So this past summer was a pretty average affair. I recorded no 100 degree days and since October has never produced a century mark in this region, it is safe to say there will be no 100 degree day this year. In fairness I did record a 99.3 in August and several areas in the Metro Portland-Vancouver area did breech the the triple digits. I did not however. I recorded 12 days above 90 degrees so far in 2016 and that is about 1-2 more than average. I have never recorded a 90 in October but it is not unprecedented, historically speaking. I think it's safe none-the-less that we are not playing in the 90s again this year as well.

So what about the upcoming winter season? Wet? Snowy? Cold? Who knows? Last winter was mild, modestly wet, a little snow and not very chilly. In fact the last time I recorded a temperature below 20 degrees F. was way back on November 30th, 2015. The coldest mark so far in 2016 was a January morning when the thermometer bottomed out at 23.5. Not exactly a frigid morning. Will this Autumn bring us a more chilly experience? Possibly, La Niña is the prediction coming from the long term climate guys and that has potentially chilly weather associated with it. I wrote about that on my 'Couv' Life blog here.

I am feeling like an average amount of low elevation snow is heading our way. That means a couple of bouts totaling 4-5 inches at PDX and locally higher in those more snowy sections of town. My 15 year average snowfall hovers around 8.5 inches here.

La Niña is a weather phenomenon that the ski resorts here in the Pacific Northwest like. Generally the cooler Pacific Ocean temperatures bring in storms that drop copious amounts of snow in the mountains above 2000 feet. If that plays out, we could have trouble with the passes all winter long. Some climatologists think it will be a strong La Niña so hold on, we could be in for a robust winter season.

Average August

Last month pretty much went down like a typical August. Daily high temps were boosted slightly above average by a short but hot heat wave with temps perilously close to 100 degrees. Some areas in and around the Portland-Vancouver Metro did bust into the triple figures. I did not however. In fact, I have not yet seen a 100 degree mark this year. That is not unusual as the last 15 years of reporting at this location, 9 years had no 100 degree days. Furthermore, I have only recorded a total of 10 days in triple figures since 2002.

September is a month that can produce hot temps, but if we fail to smack the 'century bell' in the next two weeks, we won't.

Rain was slightly on the scarce side but typical for August and overnight lows were a little cooler than average so the mean temp was probably as close to statistical normal as is possible.

We had 7 days over ninety degrees in August and that compares to a typical YEAR getting only 10 such days. The hottest of those was a mark of 99.3 degrees on the 19th. Humidity was fairly dry that day at around 25-30% so the "feels like" temp was around 102 or so. The average daily high for the month came in about 2 degrees warm with 82.1 observed against the long term average of 80.21. The coolest afternoon high was a moderate 66.7 degrees on the 9th with some scattered showers about.

The overnight lows averaged out at 55.79 which is only around a 1/2 degree cooler than the typical 56.35. There were 3 days with overnight lows stuck in the 60s including the balmiest evening low of 62.8 on the 13th. The chilliest mark came the morning of the 6th when the mercury decided to take a dip to 48.7. That was one of three lows below 50 degrees.

Nothing exciting on the 'skywater' scene for August. I recording a dry 0.26 inches of rain falling below the "normal" mark of 1.27. Honestly July and August rainfall is typically less than 0.50 inches but every few years a big thunderstorm rolls in and drops 2 or 3 inches and skews the average. Kind of like snowfall in the winter, we usually get a dusting or two each year but every 4-5 years we get a dumping.

Speaking of snow, I bought a Jeep, so it damn well better be a snowy winter this year ;)

Get out and soak it up my friends, summer is coming to a rapid close. Soak it up.

Cool July, Nice, Very Nice!

'Nice' is an apt description for the month of July we just enjoyed. Sure there was that one week that was cloudy and even a bit showery, but the rainfall stats were still slightly lower than my 15 year normal. Temps were about 3 degrees cooler than my normal as well. After the last couple of blazing hot summers, I'll take a cooler more typical summer and love it.

The stats played out typical across the board and there were few extremes this past month. The average observed daily high was 76.67 about three shy of the typical 79.71. the average observed overnight low was a very typical 55.35 against a normal of 56.18.

The warmest temperature I recorded was 91.8 degrees on the 28th one of just two days above 90 degrees last month the other a 90.9 mark on the 29th. The coolest temperature was a fairly nippy for July 46.2 the morning of the 14th. That was one of two sub 50 marks in July. The chilliest daytime high came on the 4th of July of all days when I was stuck at 65.3 degrees. Fortunately for all the Independence Day crazies here in the 'Couv' it was a mostly clear day and night. The warmest overnight low arrived on the 21st following a nice 84.9 degrees earlier with 63.7.

The rain bucket got five days of action but only two with any real rain the 7th and 8th with 0.15 and 0.38 inches respectively. The whole month had a fairly typical but less than average 0.70 inches measured against 1.02 as "normal".

That was just a fantastic month. My son Kyle, is in the Army and is stationed at Fort Polk, LA. He will be coming out for a visit next week and believe me he will love our cool weather even if we end up having a heat wave. He has endured routine daily highs in the upper 90s with humidity pushing the heat index well above 120 degrees! Yuck!

So with that in mind get outside and soak it up my friends; soak it up!

June was so very 'June-Like' this year.

Another month passes to the archives and this was a fairly typical June here in the Greater Portland-Vancouver region. Temps ran ever-so-slightly above average has seems to be the trend lately. With the exception of one heat wave early in the month and one bout with some heavy rain this was a very pleasant month.

The heat wave came on back to back days where I recorded identical daily highs of 95.7 degrees. Some stations in the area reported triple digits on one or both of those two days. Depending on your definition of "heat" the warm spell lasted from June 3rd through the 7th with mid to upper eighties on the other three days. 95.7 was the monthly high. For the rest of June after this warm spell, there was just three more 80 degree marks the rest of the month. The coolest temperature I recorded was a crisp 42.6 the morning of the 19th. The coolest afternoon came on the 14th when the mercury failed to reach 60 topping out at just 58.8 degrees. The warmest overnight low came on the 5th when it only cooled down to 63.1 degrees and that came off the previous days scorching 95.7 high.

Overall June produced a mere 2 days over 90 degrees for me and a total of 8 days in the eighties or higher. 11 days failed to hit 70 degrees. The temps at both ends of the day averaged about 2 degrees warmer than my 15 year establish "normals".

On the waterfront, I recorded 1.77 inches of rain well below my "normal' mark of 2.47 in June. The wettest day was 0.66 inches on the 23rd and there were 8 days with measurable rain including 2 with more than a quarter inch in the bucket.

We had some thunderstorms, a little hail and some amazing warm sunny days. It was in a word: June.

July and August are the only two "dry months" in this area and these are also the "hot" months. So far July is pretty mild as I am sitting at a San Diego Beach, comfy 73.6 degrees under mostly sunny skies. Me likes ;)

Warm May and June Starts off Sizzlin'

Another month is in the books and it was a toasty one, relatively speaking that is. I had to fall back on an emergency backup plan as I left for a business trip on the 20th of May and whilst I was cruising at 37,000 feet my weather station decided to take a vacation. So I returned to find a data gap. Fortunately there are three amateur stations withing a few hundred yards of my station and I was able to borrow data to fill the gap.

That said the other station tends to record high a touch warmer than I as my station is 100% shielded from direct sun. Be that as it may, the month was well above average by any measure. Rainfall was bit light with half the month's total falling on one day.

The warmest day at my station was May 13th, with a toasty 88.7 degrees and several stations in the metro area reported temps over 90 degrees that day. We had one evening that remain balmy all night long, the 1st of May yielded a low of a sweaty, 67.8 degrees. The coldest overnight low came on the 28th with a seasonally chilly 42 degrees. The chilliest afternoon was also the wettest day with a high of just 54.7 degrees on the 15th. We enjoyed a month with just 6 rainy days and only half of those were actually "rainy" per se. I had 9 days with temps above eighty degrees. May was just downright pleasant.

On the water side of the weather, May was a tad on the dry side. May and June mark a transition of spring to summer and rainfall can be quite sporadic. This time around we had 2.19 inches in the bucket measured against my average of 3.25 inches. The wettest day came on the 15th when 1.10 inches crashed down upon me. I know people in Texas and Louisiana are like that's per hour, right? No my friends that was all day long. So far this year we are down against my average of the first five months of 24.92 inches against an observed 22.77. For the rain season we are way up as December was more than double her average. We are all good as far as rain is concerned for the wet season October 1st, 2015 through September 30, 2016 even if no more rain falls. But rest assured more will come ;)

June is going to lead off with a weekend sizzler according to the local weather pros. Some forecasts are suggesting that the century mark will fall on Sunday. I doubt my location will get that hot, but other areas in the Metro Portland/Vancouver may in fact see triple digit temperatures. That kind of heat is not my thing. Maybe I'll brave the crowds at the coast this weekend.

April Roller Coaster

The month of April has moved to the history file and what a roller coaster ride it was. We had a sub-par rain month and fairly average daytime highs save for two monster spikes into the hot, even for July, category.

May will start out with a nice summer-like warm day into the 80s. The week begins with some July love but quickly will turn back to spring showers and some minor t-boomers later in the week.

As for April how about those heat waves. Seriously, a heat wave in April is not unusual but notable, but two heat waves in April, WOW! Daily records were falling like autumn leaves this past month.

The high for the month came on the 18th with a personal all time April mark of 91.6 and that appears to have been the all time April mark for the 'Couv' dating back to the 19th century! That was the only 90 plus mark for the month, of course. That 91.6 came second in a series of four consecutive days above 80 degrees. That was second group of 80 plus days the first group a back to back pair on the 7th and 8th with a near 90 mark of 88.7 on the 7th. 2016 begins rather ominously as last year was a record for 90 plus days in many Greater Portland Metro communities. I had 18 90 'plussers' last year about double my local average. The first of those 18 came in June and this year I have one logged already in April. Oh boy. The warmest overnight low did not follow the hot 91.6 day, but came on the morning of the 20th with a mark of 50.9 degrees.

On the chilly side of the month there isn't much to report. In fact not a single morning was below the ice making mark. The coolest came on the morning of the 16th with a chilly but not at all uncommon 36.3 degrees one of just four mornings that managed to chill into the 30s. Every single day in the month of April was able to warm above the 50 degree comfort mark with the chilliest afternoon the 14th hitting 51.6 degrees.

Overall April 2016 was much warmer than average. the observed average low was a hefty 3.5 degrees above my established norms and the observed highs were a crazy 7 degrees warmer than average thanks to not one, but two heat waves.

Rainfall was well under normal for me with a dry 2.21 inches in the bucket against my more typical 4.24 inches. We had a few days with thunderstorms and some localized heavy rain was present. That should create wide variances in rainfall totals at local weather stations. The rain for the year has been solid with a four month start of 20.58 inches and a season to date (Oct, 2015 to date) of a dripping wet 49.66 inches. Holy soggy soil Batman, that's a whole bunch of water!

There is a heavy layer of snow on the high Cascade peaks but very little remains on the local foothills. In fact there is just one tiny little patch clinging to life on the very tip of Silver Star (4364 ft). There is a good chance that won't survive the next two days. As for late season skiing? It should be solid, Timberline lodge is reporting a May 1st base at the lodge (6000 ft) of 121 inches. Up higher the last Snow Cat data about a month ago reported over 67 FEET of snow depth at Bean's Run (7326 feet).

Let's all shout out a welcome to the merry month of May. There is a high probability that freezing weather is firmly planted in the rear view mirror and that warmer days lie ahead. May is almost as fickle as March and April so we likely won't finish this month without some noteworthy weather bumps, but the gorgeous days of summer now await on the near horizon.

March has Marched Away

Yet another month has marched into the archives and it was pretty ho-hum as far as weather is concerned here in America's Vancouver and the Metro Portland area. we had a few wind driven storms that did some damage but nothing out of ordinary for our fickle and sometimes angry spring.

April is starting out with the potential to be quite toasty. Today is threatening to hit 80 degrees, we'll just have to see if our first 80 of the season comes just a few weeks on the heels of the first 70 which I recorded on March 19th.

One thing interesting about this past march was the rainfall. I had exactly normal precipitation down to the 100th an inch! what are the odds of that? I have averaged 5.52 inches over the last 16 years and I measured exactly 5.52 inches. That's kinda of cool. The month of March had no crazy weather events. Those of you that look at my raw data will see a data glitch showing a minus 22 degree morning on the 29th. That definitely did not happen, and in fact never has a temperature that low been recorded in the 'Couv' as our all-time record is -11. I am not sure what happened there but I went through the daily data and the lowest temp other than the glitch was only 31.5 that day.

OK now the meat of matter. The warmest day in march this year was a nice mild and frankly perfect 72.1 degrees. Studies have shown that the ideal air temperature for humans is... 72 degrees F. That 72.1 came on the very last day of March and was the second "perfect" high in a row with 71.8 recording on the 30th. The coldest overnight low was a respectably chilly 30 on the 17th for a crisp start to Saint Patrick's Day. That was one of only two mornings below freezing for March which is not that unusual for the transition from winter to spring. The warmest overnight low came on the 5th with a cool but comfy 48.4. The coldest daytime high was 45 degrees and it happened twice on the both the 8th and 14th of the month. 45 is a tad chilly for daytime high this late in the season but not at all irregular for March. March is fickle has Old Man Winter tries to cling to life before being swept away by the occasionally puckish, Miss Spring. It's like she is teasing us and the old guy. Here's a 45 day for you old man, followed by a 70. let's face it winter around here does not do 70 ;)

The month overall came in a touch above average with the observed averages at 41.5 and 56.05 for low and high respectively. This measured against a more 'normal' 38.01 and 54.71. There was no measurable snowfall and that is not unusual this late in the season. We had 20 days with lows below 40 and 2 below freezing. We had 8 days above 60 and 3 above 70. 21 days of measurable rain and 6 sunny days. 9 days with more than quarter inch of rain. The wettest day was 0.67 inches on the 9th.

Unless we have a rare mid spring snow event, the final snow chart of the 2015-2016 winter has been posted on the website.http://rodsager.com/weather/snowfall-2001-date.pdf

Get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up; but keep a light jacket handy as Miss Spring likes to tease.

March stats on the 7th

I will be unable to compile monthly stats for March until next week. Meanwhile soak up these 70s my friends, soak them up!

Old Man Winter is Poking at Miss Spring

March has been on the chilly side thus far. It seems winter is not quite ready to let go nor pass the baton to Spring. There hasn't been any winter precipitation down in the lowlands but we have been dancing on edge with overnight lows in the 30s and daytime highs mostly in the 40s. Snow levels have remained down around 2000 feet and the snow is piling high in Cascades.

Today should mark a bit a warmer transition as the jet stream is riding up high allowing for some mild conditions to settle in for a bit. We might get to play with some spring 60s here tomorrow. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and I have only had one March in 15 years of record keeping that had any significant snow accumulations after that day. Of course back in 2001 there was 1.6 inches that fell on St. Paddy's day and then in 2012 the snowiest March I have ever had at this location I had 3 inches on the ground on March 22nd. So we are by no means out of winter's grasp, but it is highly unlikely we will see any more sticking snow this season.

We had a second year in a row with sub-par snowfall down in valleys. I know that makes a lot of people quite happy. I like some snow in the winter personally so a paltry 2 inches is a bit weak sauce for this weather observer, but that's all we've had this season.

Here is the data for my snowy March in 2012.

Date           Snow    Depth

1-Mar	2.50	2.50
2-Mar		0.10
3-Mar
4-Mar
5-Mar
6-Mar
7-Mar
8-Mar
9-Mar
10-Mar
11-Mar
12-Mar
13-Mar	2.00	2.00
14-Mar
15-Mar
16-Mar
17-Mar
18-Mar	0.10
19-Mar	0.25	0.25
20-Mar
21-Mar	1.00	1.00
22-Mar	2.00	3.00
23-Mar		0.50
24-Mar		0.01
25-Mar
26-Mar
27-Mar
28-Mar
29-Mar
30-Mar
31-Mar

February was rather unexciting

Once again a month has closed and this extended version of February proved to be a bit unexciting. There was little in the way of winter weather and a typical amount of rain. We did have some record or near record warm temperatures that were scattered around the Metro area during the month. I had three 15 year warmest daily highs in row, the 7th, 8th, and 9th all above 60 degrees. These were three of the six days in excess of 60 degrees.

February is a transitional month that can be winter cold or spring warm. The shortest month of the year here in the 'Couv' is also the month that begins to show some of the fickle nature of springtime, despite being no part of the official spring. February can enjoy some moderately warm weather that is virtually absent in December and January but it can also get downright nasty cold at times. This year was more of the former and none of the latter.

Really we had steady showers and rain throughout the month with a few sunny day breaks. never any real heavy rain nor any snow or cold weather. 20 days with measurable precipitation and 9 days of at least mostly sunshine. 8 days busted out over the top of 50 degrees and every day managed to top out well above 40 degrees. Just three mornings saw sub freezing temps and lowest of those a barely chilly 30 degrees. Overall this past February was rather toasty on temps with nearly plus five degrees for both minimum and maximum temps on average. The average morning low was observed at 39.88 and the average daily high at 54.44.

The coldest morning as mentioned above was a mere 30 on the 23rd and the warmest overnight low came on the 15th with a toasty 49.6. The warmest day came on the 25th with a very nice 64.6 the coolest afternoon was the 1st day of the month when the mercury topped out at 44.4 degrees.

Rainfall was steady and consistent but never really heavy with the most falling on the 4th less than 1/2 and inch at 0.45. There were nine days with 1/4 inch or more.

Looking ahead to the month of March, my guess is that we are done with winter. Long term weather prognosticators with far more experience than I are not suggesting any late season antics from Old Man Winter. Historically with the notable exception of march 2012, I have never received more than a dusting of short lived snow in March. That exception was a chilly month of March with nearly 8 inches of snow scattered through the month. I just don't see that happening this time 'round. Following the trends were have a decent shot at some early warm weather and will likely enjoy our first 70 degree day sometime in the upcoming month. The last time the needle blew past 70 degrees was back on October 16th when we enjoyed a beautiful 74.1 degrees. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to seeing those kinds of days soon :) Spring is quite literally standing at the door.

Soak it up my friends; soak it up.

Spring Preview

After enduring more than two feet of rain over the last two months, we are getting a reprieve that should last through mid-week. Looking out the window I see nothing but big blue sky and a radiant sun. We should see temperatures in the upper fifties this week with some locations topping out over 60 degrees. This is more like an early spring than the middle of winter. I don't imagine winter has retired yet. I'm sure it's just a little getaway. The old man will return and who knows, he could bring back some snow, ice, and you can bet a whole lot of rain. Soak up the sunshine my friends, soak it up!

January: a tale of Jekyll and Hyde

This glorious new year started off much like its predecessor ended; it was a bit chilly. Nothing record breaking, not even close, but chilly and even a bit snowy. About halfway through the month things began to get warm and wet. Not record breaking wet like December 2015, but a solid eight and a half inches of precipitation managed to find the rain gauge. This translated into gobs of fluffy white powder in the upper elevations and torrents of rushing water down here.

There were enough fifties in January to catch the attention of the marketing people at AARP. Downtown Vancouver and parts of Portland were playing footsie with 60 degrees, I topped out at 56.5 on the 25th, one of 7 days finding the 50 plus mark. The warmest over night low came on the 27th with a toasty 46. Early in the month the chilliest morning was the 3rd with a modest mark of 23.5, one of 11 days under the freezing mark. The coldest daytime high arrived later that same day when the mercury failed to get out of the 20's, peaking at 29.5. That was the only day that couldn't get above freezing and it turned out to be the snowy day as well when 1.75 inches fluffy white was on the ground. A little bit more snow fell over the next few days mostly as mixed precipitation.

Speaking of precipitation, the month finished up with 8.57 inches in the bucket which for me is about an inch and a half above my 15 year average. 22 days of rain but relatively dry compared to the 16 inch deluge that ended 2015. A flat 2 inches of snow fell from the 3rd through the 5th, nearly all of it on the 3rd. The snow actually hung around in shady spots for over a week; it's unusual for such a light dusting to hang around that long. The wettest day had 1.01 inches of rain; that was one of 13 days with a 1/4 in the bucket or more and one of four with more than 3/4 inch.

Overall the month was about dead on average for daytime highs and a couple of degrees warmer over night by the norms. This may turn out to be a fickle winter; the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde analogy may continue to be relevant as the year progresses. Central Washington has been in a pretty deep freeze most of this winter and if that cold air stays in place east of the Cascades, a cold snap is inevitable here in the West. We shall see.

Warm and cool, warm and cool. Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Another Year is Done!

Wow! 2015 went out with a serious wet roar! December 2015 was the wettest month I have ever recorded at this location dating back to 2002. A whopping cascade of agua-licious H2O descended upon us for most of the month. This was not the garden variety Western Washington drizzle, my friends... Oh no... this was buckets and sheets of rain coming down like lions and wolves rather than cats and dogs!

More than 16 inches of precipitation fell and nearly all of it was in the form of rain. I had just a touch of snow on the 27th that did not stick. Speaking of snow, areas above 500 feet did get sticking snow and above a 1000 it is still on the ground to depths exceeding 6 inches in some locations. Further up the foothills the snow gets really deep at elevations above 2000 feet. Nearby Timberline, Oregon has piled up more than 22 FEET of snow thus far this season and the bulk of it came in December.

I have had my modest weather station running on an old XP Pentium Computer that was 15 years old. That old girl gave up the ghost in the last week of November and I decided to run an IP weather server instead of leaving a computer on 24/7. I did have to utilize some manual tracking for several days whilst I order, received and subsequently set up the IP server.

My system of recording and storing data will change to accommodate the new system.

OK so December 2015 went down like this... Warmest daytime high was 59 degrees on the 8th and it was accompanied by an gratuitous 2.15 inches of rain. The chilliest afternoon high came on the 29th when the mercury stopped at 36 degrees under partly sunny skies. Speaking of sun, I had but two days of it. The coldest overnight low occurred on the last day of 2015 when it bottomed out at 22 degrees. The warmest overnight low was 55 and it came on the 8th as well as the warmest high.

Just 7 days were below freezing and every day managed to get above freezing. The warmest 5 days were in the 50s but all were joined by monsoonal rain. Overall the month was above average for temperature but only by a little bit.

Rain was copious in volume and fell on 26 days including 25 days in a row. As the month wore on the temperatures continued to fall until the week of Christmas where the temperatures couldn't mange to get above 40 degrees and the rain was cold. Snow was a nominal .1 and it did not stick to the ground.

For the year I ended up with a fairly routine 47.94 inches of precipitation. The record December rain kept me from having yet another sub-par "dry" year for rain. 117 days were rainy and 165 were at least partly sunny :) 35 days saw lows below freezing. Every single day managed to bust up above the freezing mark. 18 days popped up over 90 degrees and there was that one day above 100 when the high hit a toasty 101.1 degrees. The coldest temp in 2015 was 16.1 degrees.

The calendar year of 2015 saw the lowest amount of snowfall I have ever recorded with a mere 1/10th of an inch and it did not stick. I have not had another calendar year with no sticking snow. I have had one winter season where there was no sticking snow, that was Nov,2002 through Mar, 2003 where .20 inches fell and none of it stuck.

You can check all the stats and figures for 2015 and previous years at www.rodsager.com/weather.

Happy New Year!